For the past four decades, inorganic materials and metals have been the backbone of the electronics industry. Semiconductor manufacturers have developed fabrication techniques that have enabled them to fabricate electronic components in inorganic materials and metals with microscale and nanoscale dimensions. For example, recent advances in lithographic and etching techniques have enabled semiconductor manufacturers to fabricate metal wires with nanoscale cross-sectional dimensions and semiconductor logic gates with widths less than a micron. However, within the next few decades, semiconductor manufactures are expected to reach limits to further manufacturing improvements in lithographic and etching techniques.
Advances and developments in materials science and chemistry may provide alternatives to using certain microscale and nanoscale inorganic and metal-based electronic components in microscale electronic devices. In recent years, chemists and materials scientists have begun to develop organic molecules, including conjugated organic molecules, short-chain oligomers, and longer-chain polymers, that emit light, conduct current, and act as semiconductors. The ability of these organic molecules to transport charge and emit light is, in part, due to weak π-bond overlap of neighboring atoms. Chemists and materials scientists have recognized a need for organic molecules that have a broad range of microscale and nanoscale electronics applications. In particular, chemists and materials scientists have recognized a need for organic molecules that can be used in microscale and nanoscale devices, including memory, logic gates, electrical interconnections, electronic switching, illumination displays, and chemical detection devices.